Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1887-07-27

coed got the best Of his Judgment. An
invincible force kept him walking along
the high road all night. At daybreak,
he found himself miles and miles away
from his pretty home at Galata. He
stopped to quench his thirst in the clear
water of a brook, which mirrored his
features and form. He was dumb.
founded at the change which his rowing
freak had wrought in his personal
appearance. Was it a dreamP His
jet-black hair had grown white in
single night, like that OF the prisoner OF
Chillon; his beard, which was carefully
shaved every morning, had grown hall
a yard long; his brand new clothes were
now in tatters; and he held in his hand
a long, stout staff which he must have
cut as he passed through wood.
He now fairly took fright at the state
he was A ray of reason returned.
He would get back to Constantinople,
by hook. or by crook. He had only to
make himself known, and fee some
peasant. SO muttering, he felt for his
purse full of gold sequins. But the
purse was gone. After fumbling in
the depths of his pocket, he presently
fetched up five bits Of red copper, the
lowest coin in the country. He flung
the money away from him with rage
and disgust. Butlater on, as he passed
a bakers shop and began to feel the
pangs Of hunger, his surprise was un'
bounded at finding five other bits OF
copper, like those which he had thrown
away. This time, however, he bought
some bread, and drank from public
fountain before proceeding on his way.
And thus, day after day, Mahmoud
the dervish Travelled. He visited many
lands, and the five copper coins which
he had at first despised, and which were
constantly renewed in his pocket as
fast as he spent them, proved in
the long run most providential
supply. Thus at Epinal, in France,
where children's colored portraits are
made, he bought for a cent his own
portrait, together with a plaintive song
set to still more plaintive tune, en-
titled 1.-The Legend of the Wandering
jew" For he had no doubt by this time
that he was the genuine article; not the
Will-o'- the-Wisp of the story, but the
real Simon Pure. So he settled down
to his task in sober earnest.
In every French town through which
he passed he was surprised beyond
measure to meet with so many of his
own countrymen. They were easily
recognizable by their peaked nose and
claw-shaped fingers, although many
had red hair and salmon-colored flesh.
Still, they were not to to be mistaken.
On reaching Paris he found them to be
so Numerous that he concluded France
must be their Promised Land, the gay
capital their Holy City and the Bourse
their Temple. He could see no diff
ference between these grasping, sordid,
hide bound scrimps and himself, as he
had gradually got to look upon him
self as the vile villain whose semblance
alone he wore. The only distinction
that he could see was in the fact
that they rented fine apartments and
lordly mansions. drove about in fine
carriages, or had box at the opera;
while he, poor, piteous wretch, having
neither home nor family, must walk on
forever without rest or sleep to soothe
his tired eyelids.
The dervish got to be so scared at
the ways and doings of those he looked
upon as belonging to his own creed
that he made off for the nearest rail
way station, which happened to be
that for Lyons. Remembering, how
ever, that he was CONDEMNED to walk
everlastingly he started for Marseilles
on foot, but soon left that town On &C.
count of the cholera.
He thereupon bent his steps towards
the East.
A twelvemonth had elapsed since the
events here recorded took place, when,
on the sacred day of the Hegira, at the
same hour, and in storm of thunder
hail and rain, like that which had taken
place at Constantinople on the same
day the previous year, two men entered
tho mosque of the Sultana-V Aide,
called Yeni-Djami, Onewas Ahasverus
the Wandering Jew, and the other was
Mahmoud, the dervish. Soon as the
public prayers were over both sailed
forth into the sshall of Shoes" and a
second interchange of foot-gear took
place. The false Jew, Mahmoud, got
back his well-furred boots and went
back homo to his villa and wines at
Galata, while the spurious dervish,
Ahasverus, stumbled upon his mud
covered, blood-stained sandals, and
went out again to wander for ever and
ever over the surface of the broad, old
earth. Translated from Victor Hugo.